Rick Remender recruits Hank Pym and talks about his big plans and why the founding Avenger should expect the unexpected

Published

Dec 19, 2011

Updated

Dec 21, 2011

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By Ben Morse

Hank Pym has been there since the beginning. As Ant-Man, he founded the Avengers, and through his various identities he has been a lynchpin of the team for good and for ill through the years. In February, Giant-Man will bear witness to a new chapter in the hallowed history of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes as a part of SECRET AVENGERS by Rick Remender and Gabriel Hardman beginning with issue #22.

So how does this veteran hero who has seen his share of dark days react to the revelation that Steve Rogers has been running a covert espionage team now being handed over to Hawkeye?

“He fully supports it,” says Remender of Hank’s stance on the Secret Avengers. “He’s been working in secret with Beast to create the team’s new Lighthouse satellite station for a while now. I hate to use such an overused term as ‘proactive,’ but that’s what the team is. And Hank can definitely see the benefit in this.

“Instead of waiting for the super villains to put together their plans and attack, this is a squad that locates potential threats, creeps through the shadows to gather intelligence, and take down bad guys hard and fast.”

However, while Pym sees the value of the Secret Avengers, he has strong opinions on the way he feels things must be run that he will not be shy in sharing.

“It was important to Hank the team not be an assassination squad,” explains Remender. “To that end he’s formed an entire new prison in the Microverse to store the heavies that they capture. The kind of people that are too powerful and dangerous to be contained on The Raft, and in other cases villains that no one should know exist. Naturally this leads us to a pretty great story in the Microverse. I got some big plans for Hank.”

The writer’s machinations will draw Pym out of the lab as Giant-Man, a course of action the Avenger didn’t necessarily plan for, forcing him to adapt.

“Hank doesn’t anticipate being used in the field at the beginning, but that’s not how things will play out,” Remender reiterates. “He wants to be more like Q [from James Bond], back at the base working on solutions, monitoring missions, and devising technologies to aid the ground team. But life is what is happening while we’re making plans, and just because Hank thinks things are going to be one way, it doesn’t make it so.

“He’s got some big changes coming up and will find himself in some delicate situations.”

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For fans that need a little extra Avengers action in their lives, Secret Avengers is the perfect choice! Part classic super hero team, part covert task force - Secret Avengers has all the high-stakes action and shadowy intrigue you could possibly ask for!

For fans that need a little extra Avengers action in their lives, Secret Avengers is the perfect choice! Part classic super hero team, part covert task force - Secret Avengers has all the high-stakes action and shadowy intrigue you could possibly ask for!